


nobody ain't got nothing on you

by lostnfound14



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Michelle Jones Needs a Hug, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Soft Peter Parker, had to do it to em, scrapbook fic, still love these kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22131268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostnfound14/pseuds/lostnfound14
Summary: michelle receives a birthday gift from somebody other than her mom for the first time in her life, and it almost makes her cry. almost.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Comments: 19
Kudos: 175





	nobody ain't got nothing on you

**Author's Note:**

> okay so i was lowkey browsing otp prompts because inspiration was low then i came up with this idea on my own! obviously i'm sure something similar has been done before but here's my take. i hope you guys enjoy! leave kudos and a comment if you like it!

Michelle doesn’t like to make a big deal out of her birthday. Usually, she’s down to go to her favorite cafe with her mom for the afternoon and have a cup of tea, and that’s the end of that. She gets a little trinket or a book as a gift, and she can’t be any happier with anything else. 

But throw a wrench into this well-oiled machine of a routine and the outcome is bound to change. This particular wrench goes by the name of Peter Parker and he’s the sweetest boy she’s ever known, going with her to bookstores, dealing with her prickly personality day-in-day-out, and looking at her like she’s someone special. 

Naturally, he had to give her a gift. She fought with valor against his insistence but eventually, he won, and with a twinkle in his eye, he said he hoped she would love what he had in mind.

It comes in the mail two days after she turns seventeen: A cardboard box, messily taped and probably relying on the huge postage sticker on top to keep it closed, with her name and address written in the loopy, unique script of Peter himself.

She carefully cuts through the sticker with a knife and pulls open the flaps of the box. Her eyes land on a… a blank, white book, which on the front cover reads “MJ” in the same handwriting. 

_You’ve definitely got my attention, Parker,_ she thinks as she carries the book, and the box, into her bedroom, launching herself into her rolly chair at her cluttered desk. She sets the box between her feet and looks at the cover of the book once more before taking a deep breath and opening it. 

“Happy Birthday,” it reads on the first page, otherwise blank. MJ flips to the next page. On it is a picture of her, a candid in which she’s looking down into a cup of tea and stirring it with a spoon. The look on her face is peaceful, content. Beneath it is a handwritten caption. “MJ and Earl Grey: Best Pals.” Michelle snorts. It’s silly, and it even rhymes. An image of him agonizing over this exact joke comes to mind and it makes her smile.

On the page opposite, another photo. _So this is a scrapbook,_ Michelle thinks. _How sentimental._

_…_

_I love it._

In this one, she and Ned are making stinky faces at one another, seated at one of Midtown’s cafeteria tables. In one of his hands, Ned holds a French fry dipped in ketchup. MJ’s eyes fall to the caption below. “Attacking the ketchup debate with poise and rationality.” 

Her face pulls itself into a smile before she can temper her reaction, and she considers beating it down (emotions, ugh), but instead, she decides to let herself reminisce. She won that argument easily. No question. 

In truth, the “debate” had been little more than points that held no real value and personal attacks that a five-year-old probably could have come up with. But she won. She refuses to consider that she could ever lose an argument to Ned Leeds.

After that, Michelle kind of loses herself in the book, flipping through each page and laughing at the captions. Each photo files itself away in her memory as her eyes drink in every detail. They all include _her,_ without fail. Peter obviously made sure of that.

One of them is even from the time he brought her up to the Stark cabin. MJ met Morgan, they quickly became obsessed with each other, and Pepper made a lovely dinner which they shared under the warm lighting of an ostentatiously beautiful ceiling lamp. It was a night that made her realize that family isn’t always blood.

The photo itself depicts a sunset over the water, with MJ’s silhouette in the foreground, standing on the pier and gazing out into the orange and purple sky. It’s a breathtaking photo and MJ admires the cotton-candy colors, silently praising Peter’s photographer’s eye, being able to capture _that._ Its caption: “Nobody ain’t got nothing on you.”

MJ’s heart swells and she wants to be mad at her sappy boyfriend but she can’t find it within herself. The time and effort Peter must have poured into this project suddenly gets to her and she has to set the book down in her lap for a moment and take a deep, shaky breath. Something is on the tip of her tongue, but she doesn’t know what yet.

The next pages after that photo are blank, except for two suspicious-looking, sleek metal devices that are stuck to the pages. On the left page, in Peter’s handwriting, is written, “PLACE ON A FLAT SURFACE.”

Michelle frowns. What is going on? She doesn’t give it much thought other than that, though, and dutifully follows the instructions. 

Nothing happens, and Michelle momentarily feels like an idiot, when suddenly the two devices flicker to life and produce an image. A hologram. _Stark tech,_ she realizes. It waits another moment, then it begins projecting a video. Almost immediately, Peter’s voice filters in through the projector’s speakers, and his legs show up in the image, walking rapidly on a sidewalk. _“So, I’m gonna get through this really quick because I’m on my way to meet you at the library,”_ he says, his voice rushed and breaths quick. _“But, um, happy birthday, MJ! These last few months with you have been some of the best of my life and–”_

“Oh, no,” she says to herself. 

_“–I’ve absolutely loved getting to know you better and, well, being able to kiss you is a bonus, but that’s not the only thing that matters – oh, let me get to the point.”_

Michelle laughs shakily. 

_“You have your own way of looking at the world and hearing you talk about literally anything is the highlight of my day, every day. Like, sometimes I just hear you speak and I think, ‘Wow, MJ’s so smart,’ you know? It could be about why Earl Grey is the best tea or why chivalry should be dead, it could be_ anything _and I’d listen.”_

“Stop that,” she whispers because her eyes are burning, but alas, it is a hologram, and Stark technology halts itself for no one. Characteristic of the man who created it.

 _“So, I mean, I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m so glad that you’re in my life and I hope that, uh, seventeen is a_ great _year for you, dancing queen.”_ In the video, Peter pushes open the door to the library, then continues. _“Oh! There you are!”_ He zooms in on a figure in the distance, leaning back in a chair and reading a book, and although the blue light of the projector makes it difficult to discern, it is unmistakably her. Michelle would recognize her own untameable curls anywhere –

A harsh _“Shh!”_ is heard. 

_“Sorry!”_ Peter whisper-shouts and the camera returns to his feet. _“Okay, um, see you in, like, ten seconds. Love you, bye!”_

The feed cuts out jarringly and MJ is left in the silence of her room to process everything she just saw and heard. Especially those last two seconds, because, well, _yeah._ But also, everything he said before that leaves her feeling kind of in shock. She’d never had any idea that he could think so highly of her, but there he goes, sweeping her feet out from under her and hitting her with that jarring realization. 

The entire gift leaves her with so much to process. Yeah, it’s a doozy. But it’s the good kind. The “steals-the-breath-from-your-lungs-and-gives-you-butterflies” kind of a doozy. 

It’s the best birthday gift she’s ever gotten and maybe it’s the best birthday gift she’ll ever get. Unless he really comes through next year.

When she sees him in the hall the next day, she makes a beeline toward him, cutting through kids that won’t move out of her way, plagued with tunnel vision, because before she does _anything_ else today, she has to do this.

His head turns from his locker as he hears her approach, and he immediately smiles. “Hey, MJ!” She keeps walking rapidly towards him, and his smile becomes a slightly concerned frown. “MJ?” He asks, and the _dork_ , he almost looks scared. 

Finally. Finally, she’s standing right in front of him, and she just goes for it, full send.

Michelle kisses him good and hard, not caring that people are probably watching because that’s _her_ boyfriend and she’s allowed to do things of the sort. 

She pulls away, and, to put it simply, Peter looks absolutely wrecked. His face is beet-red and his lips look slightly bruised, but he’s looking at her with wonder and admiration and she’s still got tunnel vision so she’s doing nothing but drinking in the image of his face.

Finally, she speaks. “I got your gift.” 

His eyes light up. “Oh! So… I take it you liked it?” 

She grins. “I loved it, dork. You’re literally the most thoughtful person I know and I don’t think _anything_ I’m gonna get you will ever top that. So, kudos. But seriously, it was an amazing gift and I cherish it.”

Peter blinks, and she can almost hear him say, _Slow down._ So she breathes and adds:

“Also, I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you guys like this one! i wrote it in like an hour because it all kind of flowed out in one session. gotta say i'm kind of proud of the result and i know we all love some petermj fluff so yeah that was that. thank you for reading! if you liked it please do drop some kudos and leave a comment. until the next!


End file.
